Researchers in the 1990's discovered that the strength of electric fields inside storm clouds is only a small fraction of what's actually needed to produce electrical discharges in air, according to classical electrical theory.

How storm clouds can launch lightning with so little field strength still remains a mystery. However, new theories [Gurevich, Zybin, Dwyer] suggest that relativity effects [and even antimatter] can amplify the creation of arcs in storm clouds. These theories have never been tested of course, since waiting with test gear at the right place and time inside a storm cloud is practically impossible.

Russian researchers in the 1960's also witnessed surprising arc-length anomalies at SIBNIIE, a high voltage research facility in Siberia. Their high voltage machines would occasionally launch arcs beyond 100 meters, striking lights in the parking lot or transmission lines across the field, as shown in this photo below. By classic electrical theory, these machines should only produce electric arcs that are meters in length!

Our goal is to bring the scenario inside storm clouds down to earth, and purposely trigger the critical first steps of lightning here on the ground where we can watch. Two 120-foot tall Tesla towers spaced about 300 feet apart can reach the minimum requirements for the electric fields that trigger lightning inside storm clouds.

Each coil tower will generate 8.8 million volts, or 17.6 million volts total, for a critical electric field strength of 61,000 volts per foot between the towers. The towers need to be at least 120ft high, to support this much voltage without flashing over to ground.

But storm clouds produce DC voltage, and the Tesla towers produce AC. How will this work?

AC voltage is really just DC voltage in motion, cycling back and forth at some rate that we call the frequency. If you take a quick snapshot of an AC voltage, it looks just like a DC voltage.

The creation process of lightning is very fast, taking place on the microsecond timescale. The Tesla tower AC voltage moves at a slow rate, so during the lightning creation event it scarcely moves at all, acting for all intents and purposes like a DC voltage. The Tesla towers produce voltage waves that are hundreds of microseconds in length, much longer than lightning creation events. In fact, the natural DC voltages inside clouds sometimes move even faster than the Tesla tower voltages!

Prototyping -- The 1:3 Scale Model

The 120ft towers need a lot of specialized engineering design. Many of the engineering solutions involved are rather novel, and need real-world testing. To test and refine these new ideas we've built a 1:3 scale case study of one of the towers. Here's an elevation sketch of the 1:3 prototype:

This scale tower model is fully functional, and has helped us refine both the construction techniques and the electrical drive systems that will be needed for the full-scale twins. At 3 million volts and 240,000 watts, this scale model is now the largest Tesla Coil ever built. We've started a series of public demos featuring this coil for those interested in watching it operate. Check out our Shows page for details.